


Witchtober II: Aquatic Boogaloo

by confidenceTrickster



Series: Witchtober [2]
Category: Inktober - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 07:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8194793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confidenceTrickster/pseuds/confidenceTrickster
Summary: I really like these two, probably going to end up seeing them again.





	

Getting her backpack to be bigger on the inside would be the easy part, Morrigan decided. Cities have a lot of space that nobody really uses, and the rituals to “borrow” a little bit at a time weren’t overly taxing, and added up to a lot. A snippet of unused stairwell here, a corner of a plaza there, and of course the donation of half her own already-cramped apartment space, to balance out the karma. City witches have a keen eye for architecture, and she wandered in the early mornings listening to  _ 99% Invisible  _ feeling simultaneously proud and annoyed that Roman Mars was giving away so many of their secrets. Today she had just finished marking off a decent square-footage in the corner of a parking garage where they hadn’t quite had enough room to fit another spot in.    
  
Her sidewalk chalk, bright green like her hair but visible only with the Second Sight, boxed out the space she needed, and she poured out her only latte for the week at its four corners, tossed in a handful of brightly-colored bus transfers for good measure. A sacrifice of Awareness and Timeliness to the City, in return for a piece of itself. “Just as long as nobody else is using it”, she whispered, and kissed the ground. Bethany would have laughed at her, both for the sentimentality and for “overpaying” so much on the spell, but Morrigan figured giving the City a little more than she needed to was fine with her--and if the way crosswalk signs tended to change right when she needed them was any indication, the City didn’t mind either.    
  
Morrigan wiped her brow, enjoying the cool feeling of her aluminum rings against her forehead. Shucking her old beaten-up Jansport off her back, she peered inside to see the results of her work: the space within yawned deep enough that she’d be worried about turning an ankle if she jumped in. More than enough, even with the fluctuations if a space or two became temporarily occupied in the outside world. Waterproofing it was going to be harder. What were you suppose to give up to gain the concept of non-permeability? After a 2AM brainstorming session with Bethany, she concluded that the most important thing was that her familiar felt safe and at home in the new environment, which would naturally include the water staying there.    
  
She bit her lip and made the exchange, spending a month without her sigiled anti-catcaller headphones, with her keys protruding from her clenched fist like claws, wondering how anyone managed this without magic. She got home exhausted and woke up bleary, telling herself that everything would be easier once she had her familiar to share the load. Of course she knew that it would only change some things--change  _ her,  _ especially--but not the world she moved through. Still, it would be nice not to be alone sometimes. 

A crow, or any  _ corvidae _ really, would have been dangerously on-the-nose: magic links based on that type of symbolism tended to work beautifully until the exact moment you needed them most. And she’d always preferred marine life anyway. Still, Morrigan felt overly conspicuous as she approached the Aquarium doors. A chartreuse side-cut and a lip ring meant a lot to the right sort of person--and a different lot to the wrong sort of person--but “inconspicuous” was not a word anyone would consider describing her with, even in this city. Muttering a quick cantrip, she exchanged catching the eye of someone she’d want to notice her in the future for a quick Somebody Else’s Problem field now, and paid for her ticket without the teller ever quite looking her in the eye.    
  
She couldn’t hear the sound or feel the weight of the hundreds of gallons of seawater sloshing around in her backpack, fortunately, but all her awareness was focused on it just the same as she navigated through the crowd to the exhibit she wanted. She couldn’t see her friend inside the massive cylindrical tank, but that didn’t mean much. She crouched down next to the tank, focusing her thoughts as she pressed her palm to the glass. <Triton? You there, buddy?>   
  
A nearby rock rippled and unfurled as the Giant Pacific Octopus answered her call, pressing suckers flat across the glass from her palm.  **< Human-Magical, Morrigan.> ** Morrigan grinned. <Good to see you, too. I’ve got everything ready on my end. Terms as we discussed, provisional Familiar Contract with options for making it permanent upon review?> Colors and patterns flowed across the cephalopod’s mantle, a whole separate language she didn’t yet understand.  **< Acquiescence-acceptance. Friendship-binding. Plurality-oneness.> ** Morrigan took a deep breath. A lot was riding on whether the City considered this  _ liberation of a wrongly imprisoned individual  _ or  _ theft of public property _ **_,_ ** and they had no way to tell ahead of time. The next few years might not be easy. But they both knew what they were getting into. 

  
<All right. Let’s break you out of here. Three, two, one!> As the glass shattered and the water inside came roaring out in all directions, the witch unzipped her backpack and leapt forward to meet her new companion. <We are going to get into  _ so  _ much trouble together.> **< Aloneness-abatement. Mischief-anticipation.>** <Yeah. Me too.>


End file.
